Whisper a prayer in the morning..................

Those are sweet words from a little song I taught my kids when we were in North Carolina. It goes like this:
Whisper a prayer in the morning,
Whisper a prayer at noon.
Whisper a prayer in the evening,
He will keep your heart in tune.
God answers prayer in the morning,
God answers prayer at noon.
God answers prayer in the evening.
He will keep your heart in tune.


How true is that. Also, how HE hears even a whisper from your heart and head.
Yesterday, Mark and I were sitting on our bed talking before school about how nice it would be to take the kids to the barber shop to get their hair cut. However, with 18 children it takes a lot of time to sit and wait and even money to get all of those heads cut. We left it at that and parted to our separate classes for the day.
Each day at 10 am we have morning snack and a break. Since Karla was off yesterday I decided that I would take all the kids in my class and Micah out for a walk around the soccer field while they ate their snack. We started on our way when a car drove up. It is not uncommon for people to stop by the church and visit with Pastor Matt or have discipleship classes. However, this couple was a new couple. In fact so new that Sunday was their first day at our church. He stepped out of his car and we began to talk and then he said that he wanted to know if our children could use haircuts. I am sure my jaw dropped as I looked at him. I said "yes actually they could use haircuts." In fact my husband and I were talking just this morning of how we wish we could take the kids to the barbershop. He said, " I am a barber and I even brought my own chair and my wife also cuts hair."
 WOW! We wanted to go to the barbershop but God brought the barbershop to us. What a huge blessing Anthony and his wife Yolane were to us yesterday. They got almost everyone's haircut before they had to leave. (keeping in mind they were here for over two hours cutting hair). When they left we had just had 9 kids with new haircuts. The kids even talked about how special it was that they came and they were new and came and wanted to be a blessing to us. Thank you Lord for how you always supply and hear even a whisper.

Life.......Love.....and Letting Go...........

 

This has been one of the hardest weeks ever in our lives.  On Friday, I flew our only daughter to Florida to start a new journey. It doesn't seem possible that she should be ready for this. It seems like only yesterday we were holding her hand as she took her first steps and then took off her training wheels so she could ride all by herself. Now yet again, we have to let her go. Our hearts ache we have cried to the point of loss of appetite and headaches. We know that she is a special girl.....we know that we have tried to raise her the way the Lord says that you should raise your children. She is so much better than us. Her knowledge in the Bible, her heart for the Lord, her service to others. All these are reflected in her words and her life. She truly lives the same way on Monday as she does on Sunday. She is only 18 and she has been tithing as long as I can remember to her local church and to missions......and she doesn't even have a job!!!!!! She is a gem. We are so grateful that God allowed us to be her parents.

This again has been so draining, so emotional it made me start to think about God the Father as He prepared HIS Son Jesus to come to earth. The pain HE must have felt letting HIM go. The sadness He must have felt when He couldn't even look at Him as He was on the cross.

Then, I start to think about Jesus and how much He loves each of us. How sad He must feel when we go astray or maybe those who have never even acknowledged Him. How His heart must ache. How He must feel drained knowing that there is separation between His children and Himself.

Elisabeth Elliot said this: " This hard place in which you perhaps find yourself is the very place in which God is giving you the opportunity to look only to Him, to spend time in prayer, and to learn long-suffering, gentleness, meekness- in short, to learn the depths of love that Christ Himself has poured out on all of us.

John 15:9 says " As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

It is still hard to begin to let go and live life like normal when we love her so much. However, I know that my heavenly Father loves us even more than we love our daughter. He will help us through this.

For all those who are parents and your children are still at home.....don't let things get in the way and take over the time that you could be spending with your family. They will be gone one day and you can never get that time back. Make as many lasting memories as possible. You will never look back and say I regret making to many memories or spending to much time with your family....you might look back and say well.....if only I had not have worked all that over time or taken all those business trips....or spend all that time on facebook or emails. Make your choice before its to late.

On another note if you don't have that relationship like I have with my heavenly Father today is the day......He loves you....He is waiting...He is ready.....you just have to make the first step......then He will reach down and grab your hand....and guide you along.....you have to come to a point wanting salvation, wanting peace.....and wanting a new life.

Just like her daddy loves her so does the Heavenly Father love us ALL

Looking for something........

Well, the heat is full force in the dry season. Here in Honduras we have only two seasons; wet and dry. We have not had any rain since the beginning of March. The grass and fields are all hard and brown and even the corn has dried up. The ground is so dry that the ants have forced their way in doors looking for the slightest drop of water on anything. We have found them in the laundry baskets, closets, cabinets, in the sinks, really EVERYWHERE. They are looking for water. I even found about 20 in a glass of water that I had beside my bed last night.  All these ants remind me of something I heard our Pastor Jeff Jones say.

He has said on many occasions that that everyone is looking for something. Everyone has a God shaped void in their life they are trying to fill. In the Bible in John 4:14 it says, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.  Jesus is the only living water that can satisfy our souls.  We are always going to be searching for something to satisfy us; whether it is fame, fortune, family, friends, even food. But the God's word is clear.....only Jesus can truly satisfy.

God has given us the opportunity to freely take of this gift of "living water". We only need to take of it. In John 7:37-38 the Bible says just that.  (37)- In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. (38)-He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said , out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

We can be satisfied.....just  like the ants who are always searching for that water to give them life....we are searching for something to give us freedom and life and satisfaction. My friend that answer today is Jesus. Maybe you have asked Jesus into your heart and life....but you never really grabbed the meat of his word.....and never really gave up worldly things....you can give those over to HIM and He alone can satisfy.

You may be reading this today and you never put your faith and trust in Jesus ......today is your day my friend. You to can have a new life you can partake in LIVING WATER. In Revelation 22:17 says " And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. and let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

You can have it....its free....it's yours for the taking...you just have to recognize that you are a sinner, that Jesus died and rose again, He paid the payment for our sins, and repent and confess with your mouth....and you shall be saved. Turn from your old ways and let HIM start anew in YOU.

Community Helpers

In school we all have learned about community helpers. When we first moved here to Honduras we began to reach out to people in the community and let them know about our home. One way to survive is by having others who can help you in your ministry along the way. We are so thankful for our dentist Doctor Julia. She is so kind, godly lady and loves our children. She helps them by seeing them when they need care and treating them for little to no cost at all. Please pray that the Lord will bless her in her business as she helps our children here at Esperanza.

It's Not To Late!

Reading in my devotion the scriptures were in Matthew 20:1-16. Here in this passage it is the story of the vineyard workers. Many workers were out early looking for work, When the master of the land saw them he offered them a job and they agreed to work for a penny. The master then continued to check on the work in progress and saw many more men waiting for a job. So, he offered a job to them as well. This happened many more times including at the end of the day 1 hour before the work day ended. When, all the men were in a line, the owner paid the men their penny. This master is just like Jesus. He continues to offer a chance to have a new life. I am thankful that at the age of 6-7, I trusted Christ as my Savior. However, because I was so young.......I did not live like I could have for the Lord. Did I live right all those years....no.....am I proud of that.....no. I am however, grateful and thankful for a God who is merciful and gives second chances. While, I could never lose my salvation I am thankful that God was still willing to use me and my life for HIS service. It is the same for you today my friend. It is not to late, no matter your age or your past. We can all do something for Christ. It maybe that we have trusted Christ when we were young but feel that because of mistakes and our past failures we are not worthy to serve the Lord. This is not true. If we are willing to ask God to forgive us....there is still ways that HE can use us. If you have never trusted Christ.....today is your day.......it's not to late. Just a few weeks ago on visitation I was able to see a 50 year old lady saved. She was made a new creature in Christ, and now she can serve the Lord. He is waiting........our God is a God of second chances.....you just have to be willing to give it to HIM and ask HIM to help you and forgive you of your sins. This can't just be words....you have to mean it, in your heart, you have to repent and acknowledge that HE is who the BIBLE says HE is.....you have to acknowledge that HE was born to die for YOU and for ME and all to come.......HE was the payment for our sins. He longs to have a personal relationship with you.....it's not to late.....but your time could run out before you make a decision and then it will be to late. Don't wait until the afterlife which is Heaven or Hell to say .......I wish I had only believed and trusted Christ.....because that is when its to late.....

WATER ANYONE?

Well, the last week has truly been an experience.....between sickness, bug bites, mystery swelling of eyes, stitches and then no water. Whew! The devil knows how to lay it on you. However, we know that God is in control but when you have no water, man! You have a difficult life. Our house has 22 people living in it. That means everything is multiplied by 22. So, here is a daily run down:
22 breakfast bowls or plates
22 spoons or forks
22 cups
whatever dishes used to make breakfast
mop buckets to clean floors
at least 20 flushes of a toilet before breakfast(depending)
20 using water to brush teeth before school

at least 4 loads of laundry daily

Lunch:
22 cups
22 plates
mop buckets to clean floors
20 more flushes of the toilet

afternoon playing outside
20 possible toilet flushes
20 sets of hands washed


washing 44 little hands
bathing 22 people before dinner

Dinner;
22 plates
22 cups
22 forks
then whatever dishes were used to make dinner
22 more flushes of the toilet
22 brushing their teeth before dinner
another possible 22 flushes of the toilet before bedtime

So, when we have no water.....we have a hard time. The last two days we have had no water. Not sure if they were working on the lines or what the cause was. We managed to get by with using plastic and paper for meals to eat off of. We filled up buckets from our creek to flush toilets. That still left us with washing dishes, washing clothes and washing bodies. So, we decided to use bottled water to give baths on Sunday night. It took (3) 5 gallon bottles to bath us all but we were grateful for them.

Now, we are wanting to construct a pila outside or an outside water tank to hold water. It will cost us around $200 or so. So, that is our next need if you would like help. Click here DONATE NOW 
Be sure to click that it is for HOPE OF HONDURAS